


this bitter mess becomes a disease

by 3ffloresce



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Altered Mental States, Drugged Sex, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Prostitution, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 14:01:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3980776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3ffloresce/pseuds/3ffloresce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys was going to get to the top, that much was obvious. And he was willing to do what must be done to get himself there as fast as possible when their current plans just aren't doing it.</p><p>Vaughn watches helplessly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this bitter mess becomes a disease

**Author's Note:**

> First fic for Borderlands fandom. Hello, y'all. Enjoy the trash I have bestowed upon you. Many many thanks to Sparxflame for spurring me on.

They had met years ago during lunch, bonded over their shared choice of the cheapest thing in the menu due to being on the bottom rung of the ladder that was the Hyperion workforce. Bonded again and became friends when Vaughn had to take in numbers from the sales division. 

They moved up steadily together and hatched a plan to make it even further. 

Hyperion was a wolves den in which only two things talked: money and violence. Backstabbing, under the table deals, literal backstabbing was the norm in Hyperion and it was accepted as long as the revenue kept coming in and power was maintained and exchanged through eager and greedy, power hungry hands. 

"So I've got this mining deal set up on Eden-3 that should bring in some extra cash I think but the buddy that has connections over there needs convincing.... I-I don't know how to go about it." Vaughn had drawn up the numbers and motioned to them as he spoke, looking up at Rhys with a hope that he'd have an idea.

Rhys bit his lip, thinking hard, and Vaughn quirked a smile, knowing what he must've been thinking: "what would Handsome Jack do?". The guy was probably the most obsessed with Handsome Jack in the entirety of Hyperion and frankly, Vaughn thought it was hilarious. 

Rhys shook his head minutely--obviously displeased with what he thought of--and nervously brushed his hair back. "I-I dunno, bro do you think we should give a bigger cut to the guy? How much can we trust him anyway?"

"Probably not at all considering he works here..." Vaughn muttered, eyeing the suited stiffs that sat a couple tables away. 

"Ugh! We have to do something. What else can we give the guy? A favor? I can't--I don't want to..." 

He knew what Rhys was saying. If money won't talk, something else always will. He tugged at his bow tie nervously. There was no way they could threaten the guy, they were two low level employees and had no muscle--literally and figuratively--to back whatever threats they were to make.

Vaughn flapped a hand at Rhys. "Hold on, hold on there's gotta be another way. I mean... These big time suits are interested in things other than money and power, right? What about--" he widened his eyes and pointed at Rhys "Women! Those kinda dickfaces love objectifying women and crap!" 

Rhys stared. "Uh, one problem, bro. Neither of us are women!" He flailed a hand at both of them. "At least, I don't think so. What, you've got something to tell me, Vaughn?"

"What? N-No! Look," Vaughn leaned forward. "We know Yvette. And she's a looker, right? Get her to talk to the guy, sweet talk him ya know?" He grinned. 

"Ohh, I see I see." Rhys leaned back and crossed his arms. "Sounds good, sounds good so who's gonna tell Yvette, me or you?" He smiled smugly. Vaughn's face dropped.

"Okay, point taken, Yvette wouldn't want to be used as some prop anyways..." He leaned back in his chair, defeated, and stared down at the napkin with all of the numbers he crunched. 

A small silence stretched between them, a feeling of defeat Vaughn was sure was mutual sinking in. Suddenly, Rhys made a small choked noise and Vaughn looked up across the table at him. 

Face red, he brushed his hair back again. "What if... I dunno, what if he... didn't lean that way? I mean I heard rumors about him, ya know and I mean maybe since I'm the looks in this operation er n-no offense." He smiled sheepishly and bit his lip. "What if..I talked to him."

Now it was Vaughn’s turn to stare, a little slack jawed. “Are--Are you proposing what I think you’re proposing, bro? Cause things can go downhill really fast if you’re wrong.”

“I know that! So if things get a little too hot, I try and offer something else or something to distract him. Maybe a report or something cause big office guys get reports about all kinds of things so it’s an easy out!” Rhys was smiling uneasily, obviously not convinced of his own plan. “B-Besides, if this deal doesn’t work out, there are other chumps out there dumber than who we’re dealing with.”

Vaughn sighed and rested his head in his hands. “Ugh, okay, let’s give this a shot… You put on your Hyperion face tomorrow, go in for some overtime, meet him in his office and make sure it’s private.”

Rhys leaned back and smirked, probably more to himself than at Vaughn (though it didn’t comfort him much at all). “Relax, Vaughn. I’ve got this.”

Vaughn hoped he got it.  
\---

Turns out he did. Vaughn had scoped out the office later in the night and hid with his ear pressed against the door, ready for any kind of trouble Rhys may get himself into. It was quiet in the room and through the thick door he barely heard some stiff, faux-friendly words exchanged between the man and Rhys. It grew silent suddenly, the shuffling of papers and a chair abruptly wheeling back, and he froze in place, tense. He heard Rhys stammer something and then a direct, commanding tone.

A thump of a body falling, silence again. Vaughn tried not to freak out, ran through his options in his head and all the scenarios of what would happen. Should he call Yvette? Could she help? If Rhys was being assaulted right now behind that door, would anyone even come to help? Could he--

His train of thought stopped abruptly at the sound of a man moaning. 

Vaughn stepped away from the door at that point and took to wait for Rhys at their meeting point instead, face red and eyes wide.

Rhys walked towards Vaughn later where he sat on Rhys’ favorite bench (the one with the view, he said though all it faced was a rather large and impressive portrait of Handsome Jack). His face was red, his lips redder and abused, and his hair disheveled. He offered a small smile but his eyebrows were stuck in a furrowed, worried place. Vaughn tried not to stare too long at his mouth, tried not to think too hard about what might have caused it.

“S-So, uh, how’d it go, bro?” He offered, breaking the silence.

Rhys smiled a little wider, a little more light in his eyes. “The deal is good to go! He agreed to help us out with setting it up and well, he’s getting twenty percent rather than the agreed fifteen but that still leaves both of us with eighty percent!” He plopped down onto the bench next to Vaughn and threw an arm over his shoulders. “We’re on our way, bro.”

Vaughn smiled tensely. “Y-Yeah, man. On our way…”

Rhys’ smile fell a bit. Vaughn looked away.

“Hey, uh, bro… You okay?” Rhys asked, pulling away slightly to get a good look at him.

“What. What did you do? What did you say if I uh may ask?” Vaughn stared down at the too pristine floor. “Like… okay, I was at the door listening in. I-In case anything went wrong, yeah? Or if things went good and I knew that it was time to pop champagne!” He emoted the motion of popping a bottle of champagne with a tense smile, pausing, then slumping back a little.

“… I heard a couple things.” he felt Rhys tense up next to him, “You can tell me, man. We’re bros, you know?” He looked up to get a look at Rhys and found him biting his lip, his face twice as red as it was before.

He ran a hand through his disheveled hair in an attempt to get it back into place. His eyes shifted before he sighed and leaned back against the wall, staring at the large portrait of Handsome Jack. “Okay… D-Don’t tell anyone, okay?” 

“Not a soul, bro.” Vaughn made a show of crossing his heart. Rhys smiled again and he offered a smile in return. 

The smile faded and his eyes became downcast. "We were talking. Just talking business and then I decide to play some smooth moves ya know? He gets a little... uppity. Then he got scarily quiet." Rhys bit his lip. "He... rolled his chair back. Said if I was so eager to suck up to him then I could, well…” He made some vague, slightly inappropriate hand gestures but Vaughn got the picture well enough.

“Man, that… kinda blows.” Rhys choked a little as if torn between laughing and awkwardly clearing his throat. “I-I mean--! We got the deal though, right? And this was just a one time thing, you don’t have to do… that. Again. If you don’t want to, okay bro?” Vaughn placed a hand on Rhys’ shoulder with his best victory grin. 

He returned the smile but refused to meet Vaughn’s eyes, his face red again. “Y-Yeah, bro. It was pretty nasty anyways he must’ve had a shit diet.” Rhys laughed nervously and stood up to walk away stiffly. “See you around, Vaughn!”

Vaughn stared at Rhys’ retreating form with a raised eyebrow before shrugging in dismissal and turning back to the obnoxiously huge poster of Handsome Jack. Jack stared back, eyebrow raised and a cocky smirk on his face as he pointed out with big, bold Hyperion yellow text saying: “Handsome Jack: Your Hero!”. Vaughn sighed before hopping up onto his feet and making his way down the hallway.

Things were going according to plan: the deal was struck and the extra revenue will help advance Rhys to the top and with him, Yvette and Vaughn. There was a heavy weight in Vaughn’s gut, however, just thinking about what Rhys had to do and--hopefully--doesn’t have to do again. The sudden image of Rhys, on his knees before an unknown man, fists in his hair, and his head bobbing over the man’s crotch, came to Vaughn and he nearly tripped over himself. 

He rushed into his apartment, straight into the bathroom, and hopped into the shower before setting it to the coldest setting possible. 

Yeah, hopefully Rhys won’t have to do that again.

\---

Rhys got a shiny new eye and a new arm after the money and the bonuses came rolling in. He was so excited to show off he had hobbled into Vaughn’s apartment right after he was released, still bandaged and delirious from medications. It was hilarious but frankly kind of a pain to be the one to babysit the guy until he was coherent enough to wander back to his own apartment.

He showed up again, bandages off and medication gone, a big grin and ECHO eye glowing faintly to scan everything. Vaughn was glad to see him again, grinning back just as wide until he spotted a vivid, dark mark on his neck that was barely covered by the collar of his shirt. His eyes trained on the spot, grin falling a bit, before flicking his eyes back to Rhys’ face. Rhys had noticed his wandering eye and brought a mechanical hand up to rub at his neck, a poor guise of a nervous habit to disguise the mark. 

The ECHO eye whirred quietly before settling back into the startling blue. Rhys smiled but it was frankly the worst fake smile the guy had ever done. Eyebrows up and worried, mouth crooked, eyes a little too wide. The weight settled in Vaughn’s gut when realization hit him: both the eye and the arm cost almost a fortune and Rhys had gotten them much sooner than was possible with regular bonuses only.

Vaughn said nothing, however. This was good, it meant their plan could move forward faster because of Rhys’ newfound… talent. He smiled at Rhys, wider and probably just as fake.

Things will be fine.

\---

“You know that kid with the cybernetic enhancements?”

“The tall, lanky one?”

“Yeah. Came to my office one night, dropped off some papers, and I had heard a few rumors about him, right? So, I offer him a bonus if he got on his knees for me.”

“I bet the slut did it too.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Was he good? I mean, I don’t swing that way but if it’s as good as others say--”

“Oh, yeah. He fucking loves it too, swallows and everything. I busted in his mouth and he just kept--”

Vaughn kicked the vending machine to receive his chips faster. Grabbed it and roughly tore it open, shoving more than what might be wise into his mouth so that the crunch of it could drown out the conversation. He never left a room so fast in his life.

He met up with Rhys later that day. He had zipped his vest up tight over his neck and smiled at Vaughn. He babbled about a bonus he had received recently, about how his superiors seem excited to refer him to a high position almost immediately. Vaughn grinned back and nodded, saying the encouragements needed and how this is great for all of them. Yvette mocked him that he’d need a better outfit for the promotion, reaching out to unzip the vest in jest. Vaughn’s eyes widened and Rhys quickly zipped it back up, sheepishly smiling and stammering out that the temperature regulation must be malfunctioning.

Under the collar was a thick ring of dark bruises all along his neck. It looked as though someone had choked him near to death then ran over his neck. Rhys' face had tinged pink and offered to treat everyone to lunch, much to Yvette's delight. 

Vaughn excused himself to the bathroom, hoping the weight in his gut was just him needing to shit. 

\---

A knock came to his apartment door. Vaughn was wary to open it, considering how late it was, and opened the door a crack to get a look. 

Leaning heavily against the door was Rhys, breathing heavily and his clothes seemingly thrown on and barely hanging off his thin frame. He lifted his head almost as if he was asleep and smiled blearily at Vaughn. To Vaughn’s slight horror, his teeth were tinged with blood and his right eye was swollen with the beginnings with a black eye.. He scrambled to drag Rhys inside, carefully leading him to the nearest seat due to an incredibly worrying limp. His head flopped back and his breath was labored and halted as if the trip to Vaughn’s apartment was spent sprinting. Vaughn’s hands shook. Again, bruises on Rhys’ neck, vivid and angry that seemed to spread down further under his hastily buttoned up shirt.

“R-Rhys… Rhys, buddy, c’mon talk to me.” Vaughn reached out and pulled his head forward to look into his eyes which looked unfocused and dazed. His nose was smudged with half dried blood and Vaughn swallowed nervously before wiping it off to the best of his ability. A dizzy smile graced Rhys’ face.

“Hey… Hey, man. I found you.” His words slurred together and he nuzzled into Vaughn’s palm. His skin was hot to the touch, burning against Vaughn’s hand as if he had a fever.

“Yeah, yeah you found me but tell me what happened Rhys. What’s going on? Your face is on fire!” Vaughn fretted about, exasperated and getting increasingly anxious.

Rhys hummed and leaned forward to fall into Vaughn’s chest to nuzzle there. “Feel hot, yeah… Did some overtime earlier… Don’t remember what else happened.” He mumbled into Vaughn’s shirt.

He stared down at Rhys and gently pushed him back against the chair. “I’m… I’m gonna get your shirt off, okay? You’re burning up and that bruising seems to go down farther…” Rhys nodded dumbly and smiled.

With shaking hands, he unbuttoned the shirt revealing bruises and marks that looked like teeth or like hands. Angry, red yet fading lines of nails being dragged across flesh. Vaughn exhaled shakily, that heavy weight in his gut feeling like a ton as he pressed a shaking finger to a bruise.

Rhys moaned softly.

Vaughn shook.

“Rhys… what did they do to you, man.” He glanced down at the pants that were still left unbuttoned, belt missing, and noticed a still wet patch on the front of Rhys’ pants. 

Rhys laughed, soft and far off. “I was doing overtime, man. Guy was cool, offered a lot of recommendations and everything if I did good and I said, sure sure. So I get to work.” He licked his teeth unconsciously. “Then… someone else came in. Yanked me away, I think? I remember drinking a… thing.” His eyebrows furrowed and he slid down further in the chair, slouching and half off of the chair.

“I dunno, man… Everything else is a blur.” He leaned back and smiled languidly. “It’s fine, bro.”

Vaughn pulled up another chair and sat down, the weight in his gut almost too much for him to stand. This had gone too far now. He knew--he had known all along--that it was only a matter of time until some asshole took advantage of what Rhys was offering, to use him and toss him away without so much a thought as these men had done now. He needed to put a stop to it now, time to draft up a new plan, a new way to--

Hands trailed up over his thighs. Rhys smiled, all fluid easiness as he laid his head on Vaughn’s knee. Mechanical fingers tugged down his biking shorts and he froze in his seat to see himself become exposed to his best friend. 

“Y’got muscular thighs, man what the fuuuck.” He laughed and brought his flesh hand to grope at Vaughn’s soft cock.

Vaughn breathed shakily. “D-Dude, Rhys. You don’t have to do this, man. I’m not--” All of his breath left him at the first touch of Rhys’ tongue and felt himself start to harden embarrassingly fast.

“S’cool. I owe you, man… For being there for me.” He dragged the flat of his tongue all along the length of him, pursing his lips over the head momentarily. 

Rhys settled himself snugly between Vaughn’s legs, licking and stroking him to full hardness. Vaughn clenched his fists at his sides, teeth clenched, but his eyes stayed open just to watch his best friend happily take the head of his cock into his mouth with a sharp suck that had him gasping. 

He popped the head out of his mouth obscenely and trailed his lips down and up the underside of his cock. He hummed to himself, content, before sliding his mouth down down Vaughn’s cock until it hit the back of his throat. Vaughn bucked his hips and let out a groan, forgoing clenching his fists to clench at the armrests of his chair.

Rhys held his cock in his throat and swallowed around it a couple times before popping his mouth off with a self satisfied hum. “Hey, bro…?” His lips brushed against the slick skin of Vaughn’s cock as he spoke.

He shuddered. “Y-Yeah?” Vaughn attempted, voice shaky and barely above a whisper.

A snort, inelegant. “No homo, man.” Rhys smiled, slow and languid as his brought his mouth back to Vaughn’s cock, sucking in his cheeks and doing something with his tongue that had Vaugh nearly doubling over.

Vaughn stared blankly down at Rhys’ bobbing head in his lap as he moaned and hummed shamelessly. He didn’t miss the way Rhys’ hips humped up into the air against nothing or the fingers digging into his thighs. He shut his eyes and brought his fingers to Rhys’ hair, clenching tight at his hair to dictate the pace of his mouth on his cock.

Rhys’ moans were louder than the blood roaring in his ears when he came, nearly tugging his hair out from his scalp.

They were right. He swallowed and sucked him dry afterwards.


End file.
